The GRE Verbal Reasoning Test: Challenge Words: Challenge, List 3

This list of challenge words features some of the hardest words that you will encounter in the Verbal Reasoning section of the GRE. These are words that typically appear less frequently across different academic disciplines, so you are less likely to have encountered them before. Master these difficult words and watch your GRE score soar!
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. aspersion
    a disparaging remark
    The continuing aspersions cast on her character were such that both Winnie and I were eager for her to have her day in court and prove her innocence of the charges. Long Walk to Freedom
  2. astringent
    harsh or corrosive in tone
    How refreshing to read a sharp, astringent critique of the kind of self-indulgent meanderings that too many people seem to feel they must share with the world, complete with knowledgeable fact-checking. New York Times (Feb 22, 2019)
  3. castigate
    censure severely
    My teacher pulled me in front of the class, castigated me for the “trivial” book, basically embarrassing me in front of my peers, and ended by chucking my paperback in the trash. New York Times (Jan 21, 2021)
  4. credo
    any system of principles or beliefs
    Baudelaire once wrote that "literature and the arts pursue an aim independent of morality" and, for better or worse, this has clearly become France's official artistic credo. The Guardian (Jan 31, 2011)
  5. elysian
    of such excellence as to suggest inspiration by the gods
    Most of us would be prepared to sacrifice the modest freedom of selecting our own hairstyles in return for a life of such elysian indulgence. The Guardian (Jun 29, 2015)
  6. eugenics
    the promotion of controlled breeding in human populations
    That idea escalates to its macabre zenith in Nazi Germany in the 1940s, where human eugenics is used to justify grotesque experiments, culminating in confinement, sterilization, euthanasia, and mass murder. The Gene
  7. fractious
    stubbornly resistant to authority or control
    It’s full of rage, a fractious child screaming, “I hate you” at a parent. Educated
  8. fulminate
    criticize severely
    “This development is disastrous because, intentionally or unintentionally, it serves to reinforce the notion that good English is whatever is popular,” the Times fulminated in an October, 1961, editorial. The New Yorker (Jan 30, 2015)
  9. histrionic
    overly dramatic or emotional
    She wondered if she should have been less histrionic and given them both the chance to have a calm conversation about what happened. Half of a Yellow Sun
  10. inveigle
    influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering
    Who had inveigled the child with promises, and thought of the hiding place under the willow tree, and persuaded her — no dragged her against her will — to meet Hannah? The Witch of Blackbird Pond
  11. jibe
    an aggressive remark directed at a person
    The papers had printed that the jibes and jeers were cruel and sometimes obscene, and so they were, but this was not the big show. Travels with Charley in Search of America
  12. lethargic
    deficient in alertness or activity
    I found the sick-room unwatched, as I had expected: no nurse was there; the patient lay still, and seemingly lethargic; her livid face sunk in the pillows: the fire was dying in the grate. Jane Eyre
  13. litany
    any long and tedious address or recital
    Whatever you tagged it—a roll call of evil or a litany of character flaws—Laura’s list had pressed into all my dark places. Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet
  14. nostrum
    patent medicine whose efficacy is questionable
    And it wouldn’t be America had there not been the quacks, showmen with snake-oil nostrums at the ready: garlic derivatives, copper treatments, patent remedies like “Tuberculene” — active ingredient, creosote. Los Angeles Times (Aug 30, 2022)
  15. plethora
    extreme excess
    My frantic search uncovered a plethora of random objects—clothing, shoe brushes, buttonhooks, photographs of wives and sweethearts, tins of wax and pastes—things that seemed so ordinary, so human. The City Beautiful
  16. prohibitive
    tending to discourage, especially of prices
    In the 1920s the cost of a radio had been prohibitive—$120 or more—and all that bought was a box of unassembled parts. Seabiscuit: An American Legend
  17. rarefied
    of high moral or intellectual value
    It wasn't until the 20th century that the book and its author were rediscovered and lifted to the rarefied place in the English literature pantheon they hold today. Salon (Jun 21, 2021)
  18. seismic
    subject to or caused by an earthquake or earth vibration
    These sudden movements radiate outward from the fault as seismic waves, which cause the ground to shake. Scientific American (Jun 24, 2022)
  19. stentorian
    very loud or booming
    As the orchestra roils, with restless spiraling figures, bursts of percussion and slashing brass, the characters asking the emperor for action intone their lines in stentorian, almost monotone declamations, enforced by a large chorus. New York Times (Oct 14, 2018)
  20. striate
    mark with stripes of contrasting color
    They looked like soft marbles, pink shooters striated with red, inside of which an orange/yellow liquid gleamed and threatened to ooze out if the outer membrane broke. When I Was Puerto Rican
Created on Wed Nov 30 17:29:59 EST 2022 (updated Thu Jan 12 15:08:07 EST 2023)

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